COLUMN: Leicester City’s Premier League success is not the greatest fairy tale of all time

Opinion

Ashley Booker

Published:13:58Tuesday 03 May 2016

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Forgive me if I don’t join the nation - I mean bandwagon - in congratulating Leicester City on their Premier League title success.

I’ll put my cards on the table, I’m a Forest fan and I grew up disliking Leicester just as much as our fierce rivals Derby County.

But it’s not so much this which is making me see red.

No, it’s the so-called experts, pundits and media men - mainly Sky Sports presenters - who claim the Foxes fairy tale is the greatest sports story of them all.

Absolute rubbish.

Don’t get me wrong, Leicester deserve all the plaudits they are getting, but their success has to be put into context of past glories.

Manchester United winning the European Cup 10 years after the Munich disaster is arguably better; Bob Champion winning the 1981 Grand National on Aldaniti after overcoming cancer is too and, of course, what about my own miracle men, Forest, who went from Second Division also-rans to two-time European Champions in just over 36 months?

There’s also the story of F1 driver Niki Lauda who suffered severe burns during the 1976 German Grand Prix and came close to death after inhaling toxic fumes.

Six weeks later he was back racing and won the World Championship the following season.

All are great stories, as is Leicester’s, but for those describing Jamie Vardy and his pals as the greatest ever - please do me a favour.

No, this is yet another example of people subscribing to the view that football began in 1992 when Sky Sports started bankrolling the so-called “beautiful game”.

Everything else in the sporting world pre-1992 appears to have been airbrushed from history.

So, while it’s great for football that a team like Leicester has broken the dominance of the so-called ‘big four’, please do not tell me it’s the greatest sports story of them all - because it isn’t.

If the Foxes go on to win the Champions League next season (or the following season, like Forest), then I may entertain the idea that Leicester City Football Club’s achievements are the greatest ever.

Until then, no . . .

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